MOVED!

Hey everyone!  I decided to move to a different website so I could own my own domain.  the new URL is:

http://jojoliveshere.com/

Yep.  From  now on I will be posting on that site- so you should check it out!

Using a Bookshelf as a TV Stand

No... it's not real.

Oh hello there.  Uhhh.  So.  Saturday- I was bored.  Nothing good comes from me being bored.  Well, I decided to organize the set of drawers underneath the desk in the office.  After about five minutes, everything I pulled out of the drawers I began cramming back.  What can I say? I am not so good at organizing. I have the summer to organize.  I shall do it later. Procrastinators unite!  

Anyways- if you mustache-err-must ask about the mustache... as I was organizing I struck gold!  An unopened set of mustaches.  It only took Eric like twenty minutes to notice that I was wearing one.

Annnnnyways....

Another project I took on, and actually "finished" (I say "finished" because I believe everything will probably end up changing when I either get something new or move something around) was to organize the bookshelf/TV stand.  I chose to use a bookshelf as a TV stand.  Where did we get it?  Oh boy, I shall tell you.  Once upon a time, Eric and I were driving to my classroom during the summer.  We past a garage sale and I spotted this interesting looking bookshelf.  On the way back- we had to stop... muuussst haaaaaave boooookshelf.  

Once the car came to a stop I pretty much sprinted to this shelf to see if it was for sale.  I have anxiety problems, so if I see something that I MUST HAVE at a store or garage sale I get incredibly anxious hoping that no one gets to it before I do.  It was priced at 30 bucks and I offered 20.  SOLD!  Whoop, whoop!  When I got home I looked up this shelf, it went for 200+ hundred smackaroo's at target.  Boom.  Saving money.  Check out this one.  Not the same but pretty similar.

 Then we tried to put it in our car.  Haha.  Oh man, that was terrifying.  We strapped it in and it wouldn't fit.  So we moved the driver's and passenger's seat pretty much all the way up and it still hung out.  The lady at the garage sale kindly offered us some rope and we tied that baby in.  Driving home (we lived about 2 minutes away at the time) was scary because we have a manual car, and driving so close makes it hard to shift gracefully.  The car made so many angry noises that day.

Normally, this baby stands up so it is tall instead of wide.  For a while in our rentals I had it that way because we used a table that I made as a TV table.  When we moved into our current home, I thought that this bookshelf would look more interesting as a TV stand, especially if we turned it so that it was wide.  Haha can you imagine it as a TV stand being that tall?  Woof. 

 I love this as a TV stand.  I can display lots of artwork, books, and knick knacks.  Finding a bookshelf that can be turned to be wide instead of tall may be challenging, but this one has crazy shelves that go in different directions.

Lets's take a look at the set up, shall we? 

When we arranged this before, we only had DVD's.  I wanted to set it up as a "grown up" TV stand, and give our visitors the impression that we read.  Or can read.  I use pictures that are sentimental to me.  Pictures at our wedding, and of family.  As soon as I find more frames, more pictures will be added to the shelf.  I picked out books that I really enjoy, and also add a splash of color.   Read the end of this post to see my tips on picking artwork that works well together.

Oh, I got that golden squirrel for Christmas.  Aw man he is so pretty.  The golden squirrel.  A lot of this shelf is filled with Japanese stuff.  Eric's mom acquired all of these awesome Japanese antiques and gave them to us.  I love them.

When I was placing objects, I was trying to space out colors.  Not too much.  But if you put all of one color in one area it is hard to establish a "flow".  When they are spread, it allows your eyes to wander and take in the decorations.

After I painted our dining room navy blue I moved the lamp that was here to that room because it had some turquoises in it and it looked better against the blue.  Originally I had the tree lamp here, but it wasn't thick enough.  It was too tiny to fill that gap.  So, I had mister wooden lamp that fit perfectly.  It has a balance of space.  Then, I moved our cacti to the shelf.  Oh so cute.

In order to set up a shelf so that it keeps your interest I recommend balancing the space with books, colorful objects, and pictures.  Do not load your shelf with color all in one area.  This shelf is more challenging to fill because the sections are big and small.  They have such odd spaces.  Finding things that will actually fit into these spaces is tricky, but overall I am happy with it.

The "Tree" Corner

One of my favorite areas of the house is this little corner.  I think it came together pretty well (pats self on back).  

Tree corner lives all the way in the back corner of our living room. 

The clock was purchased at a church rummage sale a couple of years ago, and it is one of my favorite pieces.  I love the shape and the color against the grey walls.  The birch tree picture was given to me by mi madre (my mother)... sigh... birch trees are my favorite.  The other day, I decided to add the tree lamp.  And thus, I dub thee tree corner.

On the little table I put two pictures, a squirrel candle holder, and an aloe plant.  Oh- and I am super duper proud of myself because this aloe plant came from the big aloe plant.  Yeah- I googled what to do with the pups, crossed my fingers that I didn't kill either plant, and hazzah!  It is still alive!  Oh look, my thumb is turning green.  Haha.  You get it?  Like, a green thumb.

Anyways, I chose these pictures pretty much based on the frames.  I thought these guys would look nice in this corner.  Oh yeah, I guess the pictures are sentimental as well.  One is of my brothers and myself, the other is of me as a kid.  If anything, I will change out the picture of me as a kid.  I always think its weird putting pictures of myself all over the house.  

Below the "upper deck", I have books and a basket with a blankey.  I believe the basket adds texture to the room.  The brown book that is standing on its own (I had a stand for it.... but I can't figure out where I put it.  Sad face) is mucho importanto (very important) to me... Eric (my husband) illustrated this wonderful book to propose to me.  Awwwww.  Its so lovey dovey.

Anywho, I love setting up areas like this.  I believe to make it work, the decorations need to flow together by either shared colors and tones, opposing color (like complementary colors... yooooou know... they complement each other!), or similar subject matter.  

For example; tree corner.  I chose these items and paired them together most importantly because they looked nice together.   If these things were colored differently, it could be very overwhelming and then it would be difficult to appreciate the art.  

My tip; before you hang anything take a look at all of your artwork and the space you have and start with one piece at a time.  The piece I started with was the clock.

It takes up this wall very well, and the way the brown plays off of the grey.  Then I chose the birch trees.  Having artwork that has rich colors in it really works well with a neutral background.  Not only do the birch trees look nice against the grey, but the picture has shared tones with the clock.  From there I brought in other elements that carried out the colors like the light brown frame because it plays well with the yellow in the picture.  The tree lamp shares the dark tones that are in both the clock and the picture. My goal is to have my artwork work together in harmony, which allows your eyes to travel from piece to piece fully appreciating the art.

Dining Room Blues

That title refers to the color selection of le dining room.  Which is french for the dining room.

 

OK!  We chose a blue to paint le dining room, and we went pretty bright.  To decorate, we added a bunch of orange and red things to play off of the blue (you know, complementary colors and all).  I wanted to like it.   I really did.

But it was just so bright, and hey if you know me you know that I love bright colorful things.  It was bright in a way that made me squint my eyes.  For a while I just tried to get myself to like it.  

The more I looked at it, the more I disliked it.  What's worse is the fact that I see so much of le dining room from the living room.  It was there to annoy me constantly.  So that is when I started searching for an alternate color.  Then I discovered a navy blue.  I was super scared about painting a room so incredibly dark, but that is when I reminded myself that paint is not permanent and I could always change it if it bothered me.

I decided the next snow day we had I would buy the paint and go for it.  Well, two days later we had a snow day and I went crazy painting!

As I started, I had a hard time controlling my face.  

This is when I am thinking "ahhhh what have I done!?!?"

Here is the first coat.  Still a bit spotty.  You can see some of the lighter blue peeking out.  

BAM!  Second coat.  In this photo, it is a lot blue-er.  The following pictures are more accurate.  

After everything dried, I decorated!

I finally found a place where this shelf worked.  Sigh.  I lorve it there.

I also lorve (no- lorve is not a typo) this milkglass.  While I was waiting for the paint to dry I thought of a way to hang these guys on the wall(more on that later).  OH!  And I found a spot for mister globe.  I got him at a rummage sale.

Chair with mini mirror.

Giant wall mirror plus baby shelves.

I don't know how much the Phoebster likes it.  I think she is more concerned with the location of her kibble. 

Ta-da!

Before's and after's.

Boom!  I must say, I love the change.

Distracted Goals and Wood Woes

SO... since school has started back up (yep, I am a teacher) I haven't had much time to post.  I find the best time to take on a project is the weekend... so hold onto your socks cuz I'm about to knock them off.  My weekend goal: to fix up the really poor painting job that I myself did at the beginning of the summer in the living room. 

Proof of crappy paint job. Ewww.

Ok so, I need to admit something about myself.  I am SUPER impatient.  So when we moved in- I felt incredibly irked by all the wallpaper staring at me in every room I went into.  I wanted my new house to look pretty.  Now.  Riiiiiight now.  [insert impatient eager face here]

  So I ripped all the wallpaper off, slapped some paint on the walls, and ever since I have felt very unhappy at the poor job I did.  As the year has gone on, I have been slowly but surely fixing up my painting boo-boo's.  

Off I went early Saturday morning caulking the edges and repainting.

Proof of progress.

Something else you need to know about me; I get distracted easily.  To give you an example; my friends will sometime's dangle keys in front of my face to get me to forget about whatever I am doing at the moment.  95% of the time it works.

 Well- I quickly ran out of caulk and noticed the state of my window seat.  Fixing up one thing draws attention to something else that needs to be fixed- yes you may quote me on that.  Ahh the wisdom of Jo.

Ignore the streak of stain... I forgot to take a actual before picture.  Sad face.

Blah.  It looked so sad.  So off Eric and I went to Ace Hardware.  I told him if they sold a baby can of stain I would purchase it to try something out.  Approaching the stain isle, I immediately saw the baby cans of stain and muttered a "hot dog!" because I only had to spend a mere seven dollars compared to a forty dollar can that I was just going to use as an experiment.  Whoop whoop!

As you can see in the picture above, I got home and went to work.  All I did to prepare the surface was to clean it off, then I spread the stain.  The reason I didn't go into sanding or anything crazy is because a. like I said before, I am INCREDIBLY IMPATIENT and b. the surface did not look like it had polyurethane or varnish on it.  It just looked bare and worn.   And I do what I waaaant!

The difference brings tears to mah eyes.  Angels are singing.  

I just want to hug it.  Forever.

Hello gorgeous. 

That is when I went crazy.  Have no fear- piece of sad wood, Jo is here!  I basically went around half of the house and stained stuff.  And boy howdy, it sure looks good.  

Later that night, on my way to bed I noticed the saddest wood of all...

The stairs.  Yeah, I realize that you are probably thinking "uhh duuh, I have seen stairs before."  But in case you  don't know... these are stairs.  

Just look at them.   Soooo sad.

Don't worry stairs I will save you.

Thus began round two: JO VERSUS THE STAIRS.  Stairs- you are going down!  Err... or up... 

Sunday morning- off I went. 

Step by step I spread the stain with a rag.

With this picture you can tell the difference between where I have stained and where I haven't.  

Ohhhh sweet baby Jesus.  Ya'all are pretty.

Now, I did not sand yet again because of the same reasons listed above.  I may want to go back and smooth them later by sanding and then re-stain.  But HOT DOG what a difference!

Oh stain, how I love thee.

Overall, this project was quick and easy.  All you needed was a can of stain that matches any previously stained wood work, a couple of rags, and time for the stuff to dry (and throw in some wicked awesome dance moves for an extra good staining time.)

  Next on my to-do list: varnish!

What do ya think?  

Mister Cart

In the house tour- you may have seen this little guy. Yep, its a train cart coffee table.  These guys can be pretty pricey, but we got ours for.... FREE!  Whoop whoop!  He was trash picked by our lovin' parents.  

There is so much space on 'em that I can really have fun placing... stuff...

A few things I placed on mister cart- our cacti, a fun scrap book mi madre made for me detailing our trips together, our wedding book, and some other fancy do-dadery.

So... I have noticed something since I started taking photos of the house... little miss Phoebe has been following me around and laying down exactly where I am taking the pictures.  She is apparently an aspiring dog model.  Now she will only drink bottled water instead of tap water.  

I placed these ornaments during Christmas time, but I really like the look of them so I am keeping them here til spring.

I swear that tall cactus is suicidal.  Whenever I move him he jumps out and flings dirt everywhere.  Yeah... the first time he did this all of his dirt flung all over our nice white-ish couch.  Bad cactus.  No.  Stay in  your pot.

Anywho... I love the little details Mister Cart has... oh!  And I CAN ROLL HIM AWAY WHEN I NEED TO!  Niiiiice.

Sigh.... so pretty.  I love you Mister Cart.